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What I call a bad day at the office
This highly customized Winchester Model 1895 sporting rifle exemplifies the apex of luxury American-made big game hunting guns available in the first decades of the twentieth century. In addition to its premium factory decorations, the gun is also distinguished by its unique combination of special-order features that is not to be found on another Winchester rifle of this type.
Winchester made the rifle in 1913 to the specification of Bernard H. Matthies (1892–1974), the American industrialist, philanthropist, and outdoorsman perhaps best-known today for his sale of a large parcel of land for a fraction of its value to the town of Beacon Falls, Connecticut, for the creation of a public park, today named Matthies Park.
The rifle survives in very good condition and appears to have seen little use. It is one of three deluxe factory-decorated Winchester rifles given to the Met Museum by the Robert M. Lee Foundation in 2018 (acc. nos. 2018.856.4; 2018.856.5a–j)—the first factory-decorated Winchesters to enter the collection.
As the production of firearms became increasingly industrialized in the United States in the 1850s, customers seeking to personalize their machine-made guns could hire an independent gunsmith to add original embellishments, or, alternatively, choose from a variety of customization options executed by skilled decorators employed by the firearm’s manufacturer.
This rifle was decorated by a Winchester factory engraver, possibly John Ulrich (1850–1924). If by Ulrich, it may have been a private commission or executed as a Winchester contractor, as he is believed to have retired from full-time work at the company in 1907. Some Winchester decorators, including Ulrich, maintained independent workshops while working at the company and after leaving Winchester.
The rifle’s blued receiver, box magazine, finger lever, and barrel are engraved with scrollwork and inlaid with gold wire framing three gold-inlaid panel scenes of big game animals—a tiger, leopard, and bear. The buttstock and forestock are carved with floral scrollwork.
These embellishments reproduce designs illustrated in the Winchester Arms Company’s catalogue Highly Finished Arms. First published in 1897, Highly Finished Arms codified for the first time Winchester’s factory decoration options for its line of rifles, offering Winchester customers ten design options for receiver decoration and eight for the stock at varying price points.
They include game scenes surrounded by scrollwork, and foliage motifs combined with scrollwork, with the option to customize for an added cost. The designs were conceived primarily by Winchester factory engravers Herman Leslie Ulrich (1846–1937) and William E. Stokes.
The Matthies rifle features Style No. 1 engraving—the most expensive available—and Style B stock carving—the second most expensive available. Few Model 1895 rifles were embellished to this level, and together these decorations cost nearly ten times the price of the rifle alone.
Other surviving examples of deluxe Model 1895 featuring this combination of engraving and stock carving are serial numbers 78191, 88044, and 88455, and the later rifles 216937, 403953, and 419777. Like the Matthies rifle, these guns are takedowns and their stocks are made from fancy walnut with a high grain contrast.
The Matthies rifle’s numerous special-order features distinguish it among this group. The barrel is threaded for a Maxim silencer—a rare factory modification on Model 1895s. In addition to a special-order Lyman Gun Sight Company leaf sight and front bead sight, the rifle is also fitted with a Lyman flexible rear sight—a spring-mounted sight attached through the upper tang that could return to the upright position after being pushed back by the rifle’s long bolt.
The hand-made, unusually high-combed Monte Carlo style butt stock with rubber recoil pad was almost certainly made to Matthies’s specification, and he would have provided measurements to Winchester to ensure it fit him precisely.
The Winchester Polishing Room Serialization Record Books record that this rifle received its serial number (81851) on April 7, 1913. Unfortunately, the Winchester’s Factory Warehouse Records, which recorded each gun’s specifications, special features, and other data, do not survive for Model 1895s post-dating 1900 (serial numbers 59999 and above).
The Model 1895 began production in 1895 and debuted in Winchester’s June 1896 catalogue. Designed to handle the new, high pressure, smokeless powder cartridges that were coming into widespread use in the United States and abroad, the Model 1895 incorporated design features that differentiated it from previous Winchester lever action rifles, chief among them a long, strong new action, a new nickel steel barrel, a cartridge box as opposed to a tubular magazine, and a jointed finger lever (second model only) that served as an additional safety.
John Moses Browning (1855–1926), whose designs led to the development of nine Winchester rifle models in total, including the Model 1886 and Model 1894, conceived the initial design for the Model 1895. It was the last lever action rifle he designed for Winchester.
The first Model 1895s chambered in .405—Winchester’s most powerful lever action cartridge to date and made for use in the Model 1895—shipped in 1904 and became popular among big game hunters, most notably former President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), who owned three of them. Roosevelt brought the rifles on his famous 1909 Smithsonian Expedition to Africa, lauding their effectiveness in accounts published in Scribner’s Magazine and his 1909 book African Game Trails, and on his 1914 expedition to South America.
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General Hans Cramer By Will Dabbs, MD
Operation Overlord was the official title for the D-Day assault. This was the largest amphibious invasion in human history. Public domain.
Operation Overlord, the 1944 Allied invasion of mainland Europe, was one of the most audacious military enterprises in human history. 160,000 Allied troops drawn mostly from the US, Great Britain, and Canada plowed inland against some 50,000 Axis defenders. The end result was a lodgment from which the Allies eventually pressed all the way to Germany.
The Germans knew we were coming. They just didn’t know exactly when or where. Calais was the obvious spot. It is less than twenty miles across the English Channel from Dover to France near Calais. As a result, the Germans staged a great deal of their defensive effort in this area. However, as we all know, that’s not what Ike had in mind.
The invasion forces moved between 80 and 100 miles by sea to reach the actual landing beaches in Normandy. While the landings were a gory mess, particularly at Omaha, they would have been far worse had the Allies not spoofed the Germans into believing that Calais was their primary landing zone.
In addition to a great deal of good old-fashioned subterfuge, a decorated German general named Hans Cramer unwittingly did his part to help the Allies.
This is Hans Cramer, last commanding officer of the
German Afrika Korps. He unwittingly helped dupe Hitler
into believing that the D-Day force was landing in Calais.
Bundesarchiv.
The Guy
Hans Cramer was the last commander of the DAK, the famed German Afrika Korps. He was captured in North Africa in May of 1943 and held in a POW camp in Wales. In 1944, Cramer was 48 years old.
That seems pretty spry by my current standards, but that’s actually fairly antiquated for a soldier. Once established in his POW camp, General Cramer got seriously sick.
On 23 May 1944, General Cramer was transported across England to be repatriated to Germany courtesy of the Swedish Red Cross. Despite the global hemoclysm that engulfed the world, there was still the occasional humanitarian release between the Allies and the Axis. Cramer’s Allied handlers carefully orchestrated his trek across the UK.
First, he processed through London. Then they motored across the English countryside so Cramer could see the massive buildup of troops, tanks, and military equipment being staged for the invasion. However, his driver led him to believe he was in southeastern England, the perfect place to stage an invasion of Calais.
Once he returned safely to Berlin, Cramer was aggressively debriefed. German intelligence officers mined him for information. Everything he reported was consistent with an objective in Calais.
Everyone knew that George Patton was the Allies’ most effective combat general. In the lead-up to D-Day, his job was to command an enormous fake army. Public domain.
Operation Fortitude
This was but a tiny part of the overall deception plan. They called this overarching enterprise Operation Fortitude. The British officer tasked with putting it all together was named, no kidding, LTC David Strangeways.
At the Tehran Conference in November of 1943, Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt met to hammer out the details of the coming invasion. It was there that Winston Churchill coined the phrase, “In wartime, truth is so precious that it should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.” LTC Strangeways took that mandate to heart.
FUSAG, the giant fake army designed to mislead the
Germans about D-Day, even had its own unique unit insignia. Public domain.
Details
General Bernard Law Montgomery’s 21st Army Group was the invasion’s major effort. However, the Allies desperately needed to keep the German 15th Army occupied in the Calais region. To do so, they created a 300,000-man army that did not technically exist.
This giant fake army was technically deployed around Kent, Essex, and Suffolk. Great effort was invested in creating radio traffic that mimicked such a gargantuan military organization.
Squadrons of imaginary aircraft and flotillas of nonexistent ships were folded into the tactical organization. Double agents captured and turned by British MI5 fed carefully-screened information back to their handlers in Germany.
This massive diaphanous unit was called the First US Army Group. They were known by the acronym FUSAG, which obviously sounds pretty cool. They even had their own unit patches and insignia.
A big part of Operation Fortitude was manning it with some proper talent. They chose America’s most flamboyant general to lead this theoretical mob. With the largest amphibious invasion in human history staging to the south, General George S. Patton was put in command of FUSAG. Patton clearly would have preferred commanding real troops. However, he absolutely owned the role.
Patton made speeches and inspected imaginary combat units. A bevy of photographers followed the flamboyant general everywhere he went, documenting his sundry inspections and presentations. The Germans rightfully thought Patton to be one of the best generals in the Allied stable. They fully expected him to command the pending invasion of Europe.
Success…
The ruse was fabulously successful. Even after the Normandy landings, Hitler and his generals still suspected it was a feint to draw attention away from Calais.
This misperception of the tactical situation bought the assault troops precious time to create a foothold in Normandy. The Germans eventually figured out that they had been duped and moved their reinforcements to Normandy right sharpish.
However, by then, the Allies had established air supremacy. That made tactical troop movements in daylight tantamount to suicide.
We all know how it ultimately turned out. Less than a year after the D-Day invasion, Hitler debrained himself in his bunker in Berlin while victorious Russian troops slagged the countryside above. However, all of that might have been very different had it not been for LTC Strangeways’ Operation Fortitude and one unwitting German general.
All images courtesy of the author
The breechloading rifle was decisive in defeating the Indians as was clearly shown to both sides in two of the first engagements, the Hayfield Fight and the Wagon Box Fight, where extremely small bands of men armed with the new M1866 50-70 Trapdoor Springfields withstood several hours of attacks by hundreds of Indians unaccustomed to dealing with rapid-fire breechloading rifles.
In the Hayfield Fight on August 1, 1867, a group of 21 soldiers and nine civilians were gathering hay near Fort C.E. Smith in Montana when they were attacked. They retreated to a fortified corral, where the Indians’ repeated attacks failed.
The next day, outside of Fort Phil Kearney in Wyoming, a force of 26 soldiers and six civilians were attacked by the Sioux at what became famous as he Wagon Box Fight for they forted up at their wagons and successfully held off the Indians.
When the British adopted the 577-450 round, the U.S. Army adopted a 45 caliber also. This was really a ploy to get back into making complete guns again. This resulted in thousands of surplus 50-70 rifles and carbines, which were eagerly snapped up by buffalo hunters and settlers. These became the main guns used in destroying the buffalo herds.
Old Buffalo hunters treasured their 50-70s. Wild Bill Hickok used to walk down the center of the street carrying his M1870 trapdoor Springfield so he could see better around the corners of buildings where there might be someone laying in ambush for him. Hickok loved that rifle so much that he requested to be buried with it.
Buffalo Bill’s favorite rifle was a M1866 50-70 trapdoor Springfield that he named Lucretia Borgia. Equally famous as an exhibition shooter, he stated on his deathbed in 1917 that this was his favorite rifle and that none of the newer rifles could shoot alongside it. I think that about says it all.
Alongside surplus M14 rifles, the Civilian Marksmanship Program says it expects to receive Winchester Model 1897 Trench Guns—one of the most iconic and sought-after U.S. military shotguns ever issued.
August 08, 2026
The Civilian Marksmanship Program’s announcement that it expects to receive surplus M14 rifles understandably dominated headlines, but another revelation from CMP CEO Gerald O’Keefe may have collectors even more excited.
During recent discussions regarding the upcoming M14 sales program, O’Keefe indicated the CMP also expects to receive an unknown quantity of Winchester Model 1897 Trench Guns. While few details have been released, the mere mention of original military 12-gauge pump-action trench guns immediately sent collectors into a frenzy.
Unlike the M14 program, where quantities are reportedly measured in the tens of thousands, few observers expect large numbers of trench guns to become available. If they do arrive, these shotguns could represent one of the most desirable military surplus offerings the CMP has ever handled.
A True American Military Classic
The Winchester Model 1897 needs little introduction among military firearms enthusiasts. Designed by John Moses Browning and introduced in 1897, the exposed-hammer pump shotgun became one of the most successful repeating shotguns ever produced. More than one million were manufactured between 1897 and 1957, serving hunters, law enforcement officers, and soldiers around the world.
The military “Trench Gun” variant became legendary during World War I. Equipped with a 20-inch barrel, ventilated steel heat shield, bayonet adapter, and sling swivels, it provided American troops with devastating close-range firepower in the trenches of France. The shotgun remained in military service through World War II, Korea, and even Vietnam. Its reputation was built not only on reliability but also on speed.
Because the Model 1897 lacked a trigger disconnector, soldiers could hold the trigger to the rear and fire each time the action closed while pumping the shotgun. This capability, commonly called “slam-firing,” contributed significantly to the shotgun’s fearsome combat reputation.
Now, to be fair the practical usefulness of slam-firing can be debated. However, if we set the hype aside, the Winchester 1897 does have a lot going for it. I have been a “97” fan for many years and own multiple examples.
The things I like about the design are its slim size, due to its compact action. The loading port on the bottom of the receiver is huge, making it easy to stuff shells in. The action is smooth and fast.
Manufacturing quality is very good. The guns handle, shoulder and point well. Are they perfect? No, they are a bit complex and the design dates from the 19th Century. However, they were designed by John Browning and remain hugely popular all these years later.
Why Collectors Are Excited
Original Winchester 1897 Trench Guns have long occupied the upper tier of U.S. military firearms collecting. The problem is authenticity. For decades, collectors have had to navigate a market filled with rebuilt guns, modified riot guns, reproduction heat shields, replacement bayonet adapters, and outright fakes. Finding a documented and original military trench gun can be difficult, and prices have reflected that reality.
That is why CMP involvement is generating so much interest. The organization has built a reputation for selling genuine U.S. military firearms directly from government inventories. If original trench guns enter the CMP pipeline, buyers may have access to documented military examples with a level of provenance rarely available on the commercial market.
The Big Questions Remain
At the moment, there are more questions than answers. The CMP has not announced:
- How many trench guns it expects to receive
- Their condition
- Whether they remain in original military configuration
- Grading standards
- Purchase limits
- Pricing
- A sales timeline
Quantity may ultimately be the most important factor. While approximately 100,000 M14 rifles have been discussed publicly, few collectors believe the number of available Winchester 1897 Trench Guns will be very large. If only a limited quantity arrives, demand could be intense.
What Will They Cost?
Nobody knows! That uncertainty has not stopped speculation. Unlike the M14, where CMP leadership has already indicated a price below $2,000, no pricing guidance has been released regarding trench guns.
Authentic military Winchester 1897 Trench Guns have become increasingly valuable over the past several decades, particularly examples retaining original finish, correct military markings, and original trench gun features. Depending on condition and originality, collector values can reach levels that place them well beyond the reach of casual buyers. Even nicely done reproductions can be quite expensive.
Whether CMP pricing follows current collector-market trends remains to be seen. Much will depend on condition, originality, and the number of shotguns ultimately transferred.
A Development Worth Watching
For now, the Winchester 1897 Trench Gun remains the surprise story hidden behind the larger M14 announcement. The M14 program will undoubtedly attract enormous attention due to the reported quantity of rifles available. The trench guns, however, appeal to a different type of collector—one interested in the iconic firearms carried by American soldiers through some of the most significant conflicts of the 20th century.
If the CMP does receive a meaningful number of Winchester 1897 Trench Guns, it could create one of the most significant opportunities in recent memory for collectors to acquire an authentic U.S. military combat shotgun.
Until more information is released, enthusiasts will simply have to wait. But if history is any guide, the words “Winchester 1897 Trench Gun” and “CMP” appearing in the same sentence are enough to ensure collectors across the country will be paying very close attention.
So let me get this straight okay? Its raining and instead of getting drunk at the 19th Hole Bar. These guys are out in the rain with a stuck golf cart. Where God gave one of them a “Are you really that stupid award”? Comments anyone?
Thanks !!!!
Grumpy